Calhoun turned. He found himself regarded with unctuous condescension by a man wearing glittering thick eyeglasses--and a man's eyes have to be very bad if he can't wear contacts--and a uniform with a caduceus at his collar. He was plump. He was beaming. He was the only man Calhoun had so far seen on this planet whose expression was neither despair nor baffled hate and fury. "You are Med Service," the beaming man observed zestfully. "Of the Interstellar Medical Service, to which all problems of public health may be referred! But here we have a real problem for you! A contagious madness! A transmissible delusion! An epidemic of insanity! A plague of the unspeakable!" The Minister for Health said uneasily: "This is Dr. Lett. He was the greatest of our physicians. Now he is nearly the last." "Agreed," said the bland man, as zestfully as before. "But now the Interstellar Medical Service sends someone before whom I should bow! Someone whose knowledge and experience and training is so infinitely greater than mine that I become abashed! I am timid! I am hesitant to offer an opinion before a Med Service man!" It was not unprecedented for an eminent doctor to resent the implied existence of greater skill or knowledge than his own. But this man was not only resentful. He was derisive. "I came here," said Calhoun politely, "on what I expected to be a strictly routine visit. But I'm told there's a very grave public health situation here. I'd like to offer any help I can give." "Grave!" Dr. Lett laughed scornfully. "It is hopeless for poor planetary doctors like myself! But not, of course, for a Med Ship man!" Calhoun shook his head. This man would not be easy to deal with. Tact was called for. But the situation was appalling. "I have a question," said Calhoun ruefully. "I'm told that paras are madmen, and there's been mention of suspicion and secretiveness which suggests schizo-paranoia and--so I have guessed--the term para for those affected in this way." "It is not any form of paranoia," said the planetary doctor, contemptuously. "Paranoia involves suspicion of everyone. Paras despise and suspect only normals. Paranoia involves a sensation of grandeur, not to be shared. Paras are friends and companions to each other. They co-operate delightedly in attempting to make normals like themselves. A paranoiac would not want anyone to share his greatness!" Calhoun considered, and then agreed. "Since you've said it, I see that it must be so. But my question remains. Madness involves delusions. But paras organize themselves. They make plans and take different parts in them. They act rationally for purposes they agree on--such as assassinating me. But how can they act rationally if they have delusions? What sort of delusions do they have?" The Minister for Health said thinly: "Only what horrors out of the jungles might suggest! I ... I cannot listen, Dr. Lett. I cannot watch, if you intend to demonstrate!"